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Training Camp Update: Sept 27

Upcoming Preseason Schedule: September 27 vs. Columbus October 2 vs. Carolina October 3 at Atlanta October 5 at Carolina

With a preseason game tonight against Columbus, the team was split into two sessions for a third consecutive day, a pre-game morning skate for the group dressing tonight and full practice session for the remainder of the players.

The morning skate was a lighter walk-though, more at the pace of a typical regular season morning skate session. The practice was heavily focused on drills, with a special emphasis on play in tight space and a lot of attention to breakaway/shootout drills.

Quote BookHead Coach Barry TrotzOn last night’s game…“I think we still have some work to do. There are some guys that I expect a lot and some guys that didn’t perform as well as I’d like them to. I thought both goaltenders were good. You could see Weber-Suter will be a pretty good pair in the league. A couple of our reads, especially on the fourth goal – we had a defenseman activate into the zone and out high forward was puck watching and got caught up ice. Little things like that we need to tighten up. I wasn’t happy with some of our focus more than anything. A couple of our guys need to be a little more focused. We’ve taken three too many men penalties and in every situation everyone knew who they had on the bench and guys are not paying attention or are not focused on what we’re supposed to be doing. That is a concern for me.”

“For the most part Columbus played their No. 1 goaltender. They played six d that will be on their hockey club for the most part. And then three of their four lines, so they played a good portion of their squad and they came out very focused and very determined. There was a lot of emphasis in Columbus put on that game last night. I thought in the first period we weathered their storm and then the second period we started the period off in the box and we sort of ran that for the first six minutes and gave up a couple of goals. In the end, we could play better and that’s going to be our goal. We have to play better.”

On Laakso and Sulzer…“At times they look fine and at other times I thought there was a hesitancy in their game. In terms of closing down space, taking down options, you could tell they still have a little bit on the learning curve. But they’re both coming along and they’re both going to be fine.”

On Klein playing three games in three days…“Well Kevin missed a lot of hockey last year, so we talked to him and he’s all for that. The more he can play the better. He’s trying to make up for lost time. This is a good test for him. Not only playing back-to-back-to-back. He played very well in Game 1; didn’t play as well last night, but they iced a much better team (than Atlanta did on Thursday night).”

On Grant and Gratton…“They both fought. They both showed up. I was a little disappointed toward the end of the game there. There was a lot of chatter going on from their guys and I thought something was going to happen at the end and no one responded there, so I was a little bit concerned with that. Other then that, they have to separate themselves a little bit here. Tonight will be a good indication if they can.”

On Shea Weber…“Last year injuries slowed Shea’s season. He looks like a horse right now. He never looks tired. He looks like he could play 40-minutes a night and not be tired. I’m really happy with getting up in the ice. Him and Suter look like they will be a real good pair for us this year. From that standpoint I’m really happy with Shea. Shea’s come back with a vengeance and he’s going to be a big part of our success this year."